Windows 11 is the latest OS from Microsoft for desktop PCs and laptops. It brings several enhancements like the redesigned start menu, a modified taskbar, and some innovative gaming features.
But there are also certain issues that negatively impact users’ experience. For instance, we highlighted how the new operating system led to frequent crashing of the Task Manager on the Performance Tab.
Windows 11 battery drain issue
Many users (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) have been reporting an issue where Windows 11 drains battery at a remarkably higher rate on Sleep mode as well as Hibernate mode.
Ever since this update, the battery drains a lot faster. I noticed that the battery dropped all the way down to about 45% after only an hour and a half of usage!!! Anyone else experiencing this?
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It has been more than 5 months already and many #Windows11 builds are released with new features and fixes but this battery drain issue is still not addressed. Many of the people are rolling back to #Windows10 because of this.
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My battery used to drain out in a couple of hours on Windows 11. I am happily back to Windows 10
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According to reports, users are experiencing a significant amount of battery loss in a very short span of time. There are also cases where Windows 11 drains the battery faster in standby mode than it actually does while using the laptop.
A potential reason for this could be Windows’ ability to wake up the PC/laptop to automatically install various updates and perform maintenance even during off hours.
Users have tried enabling the battery optimization settings in their laptops but to no avail. Even alternatives like disabling Hibernate mode, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi don’t seem to fix the issue.
Owing to this, many users are now rolling back to Windows 10 in order to fix the battery issues.
Official acknowledgment and potential workarounds
Fortunately, the development team has revealed that they are working on the Windows 11 battery drain issue.
In the meantime, affected users can disable ‘Allow this device to wake the computer’ option as a temporary fix.
If you have any connected devices, make sure they don’t have “Allow this device to wake the computer” enabled in their properties. Mice are really bad about that since they like waking the computer from sleep if they detect movement.
If not, go to your power settings, additional power settings change plan settings, change advanced power settings, sleep, and then disable “Allow wake timers”.
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Windows developers have also shared a link enlisting a number of steps that can help resolve the issue.
If the above-mentioned steps don’t work, users can just simply select their own active hours where they manually input the off-times.
We hope that the team comes up with a definitive fix at the earliest. We’ll keep tabs on further development and update this space accordingly so make sure you stay tuned.
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